Wallace Bowling

STATEMENT
This architect’s recent artwork - minimalist “constructs” – focuses on the action of viewing an image or object. Markedly different than viewing a traditionally installed painting, each construct requires more than merely looking.
Closed constructs must be opened to reveal the concealed tableau. Some may even require participation in assembling.  All is calculated, and more often manipulated. Even minor details, such as the direction the construct opens, dictate the viewer’s interface. Some may open only partially, denying the viewer.  Some constructs evoke a tinge of pleasure while others may create a distinct uneasiness. One’s emotions are heightened by this channeled participation.  Hence the viewer becomes an intimate part of the piece.

BIOGRAPHY
Artistic Curriculum 
Born in Louisville, Kentucky (1950)
Resides in Chicago and Harpers Ferry, Iowa
Educated as an architect: undergraduate at the University of Kentucky (1973), master’s program and fellowship at the University of Toronto (1979), including a wonderful summer workshop in Paris (1979) with Columbia University, New York.

Stage 1: Architecture
Early exhibitions focused predominately on architectural work: The Art Institute of Chicago (1983)
Archicenter, Chicago (1983) and the Chicago Architecture Foundation (1989, 1996)

Stage 2: Paintings
Subsequent exhibitions (group) include drawing, paintings and collage at The Art Institute of Chicago (1994), Hyde Park Art Center (1995), The Chicago Art Open (1998), Chicago’s NAME Gallery Valentine Benefit and Exhibitions (4)in the late 80’s, Artist in Residence exhibitions (5) at The Fine Arts Building Gallery, Chicago in the late 90’s. John Blank Art Center, Michigan City, IN (2003, 2004) and Davenport Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa (2005), both juried group exhibitions.

PHASE 3: Constructs
Constructs exhibitions include group exhibitions Bridgeport Art Center, Chicago (January 2015) Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI (Spring 2018) and the Rockford Art Museum (Sumer 2018)